Tick Bites Induce Anti-α-Gal Antibodies in Dogs

• Published in: Vaccines (Basel) Vol. 7; no. 3; pp. 114 - 14
• Main Authors: Hodžić, Adnan, Mateos-Hernández, Lourdes, Leschnik, Michael, Alberdi, Pilar, Rego, Ryan, Contreras, Marinela, Villar, Margarita, de la Fuente, José, Cabezas-Cruz, Alejandro, Duscher, Georg
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 15-09-2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Allergies; Animal bites; Antibodies; Antigens; Arachnids; Autoantigens; dog; Dogs; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Enzymes; Epitopes; Exocrine glands; Galactose; Glycan; Glycoproteins; Host-pathogen interactions; Immune response; Immune system; Immunoglobulin E; Immunoglobulin G; Immunoglobulin M; Inactivation; Insect bites; Ixodes ricinus; Laboratories; Life Sciences; Mammals; Meat; Oligosaccharides; Pathogens; Primates; Proteins; tick bite; Vectors (Biology); α-Gal; Denmark; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; Germany; alpha-Gal; Ixodes ricinus; pathogens; tick bite; immune response; dog
• ISSN: 2076-393X; 2076-393X
• DOI: 10.3390/vaccines7030114

Due to the functional inactivation of the gene encoding for the enzyme that is involved in the oligosaccharide galactose-α-1,3-galactose (α-Gal) synthesis, humans and Old-World primates are able to produce a large amount of antibodies against the glycan epitope. Apart from being involved in the hyperacute organ rejection in humans, anti-α-Gal antibodies have shown a protective effect against some pathogenic agents and an implication in the recently recognized tick-induced mammalian meat allergy. Conversely, non-primate mammals, including dogs, have the ability to synthetize α-Gal and, thus, their immune system is not expected to naturally generate the antibodies toward this self-antigen molecule. However, in the current study, we detected specific IgG, IgM, and IgE antibodies to α-Gal in sera of clinically healthy dogs by an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the first time. Furthermore, in a tick infestation experiment, we showed that bites of Ixodes ricinus induce the immune response to α-Gal in dogs and that the resulting antibodies (IgM) might be protective against Anaplasma phagocytophilum. These findings may help lead to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms involved in mammalian meat allergy and tick-host-pathogen interactions, but they also open up the question about the possibility that dogs could develop an allergy to mammalian meat after tick bites, similar to that in humans.